Word.ws English Dictionary

protherapeia

protherapeia noun: a figure of speech used to secure indulgence or conciliate an audience before saying something potentially shocking, offensive, or difficult to accept.

Noun

protherapeia (uncountable)

  1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech used to secure indulgence or conciliate an audience before saying something potentially shocking, offensive, or difficult to accept.
    • Acts 17:22: "Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are very religious..."

Origin of protherapeia

From Ancient Greek προθεραπεία (protherapeía, “previous care or treatment”), from πρό (pró, “before”) + θεραπεία (therapeía, “service, medical attendance”).

Questions about protherapeia

What does protherapeia mean?
Protherapeia means a figure of speech used to secure indulgence or conciliate an audience before saying something potentially shocking, offensive, or difficult to accept.
What part of speech is protherapeia?
Protherapeia is a noun.

Words near protherapeia in the dictionary

  1. prothallus
  2. prothalluses
  3. prothema
  4. prothemata
  5. protheobromine
  6. protherapeia
  7. Prothero
  8. protherogenic
  9. Protheros
  10. prothese
  11. protheses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: protherapeia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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